The storage and transportion of liquid hydrocarbons, for example fuels, via roads, rail and on the waterways present a considerable potential hazard. Thus, for example, the high flammability and explosiveness in mixtures of air has led in the past to serious accidents which have caused considerable damage. Serious ecological damage moreover constantly results from fuels discharged from leaking storage or transportation tanks.
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a process for the safe storage and the safe transportation of hydrocarbons.
This object is achieved, surprisingly, by storing and transporting the hydrocarbons in the form of hydrocarbon-rich gels.
A hydrocarbon-rich gel is understood as meaning a system which consists of polyhedrons which are formed from surfactant and are filled with hydrocarbon, water forming a continuous phase in the narrow interstices between the polyhedrons. Systems of this type are known and are described in Angew. Chem. 100 933 (1988) and Ber. Bunsenges. Phys. Chem. 92 1158 (1988).
Hydrocarbon-rich gels are distinguished by the occurrence of a flow limit. This flow limit is reached when the gel no longer withstands a stress imposed on it (shear, deformation) and starts to flow. Below the flow limit, the gel structures have the properties of solids and obey Hooke's law. Above the flow limit, in the ideal case, the system is equivalent to a Newtonian fluid. This means that although hydrocarbon-rich gels can be pumped in a simple manner, they cannot flow in the state of rest because of their properties of solids. They therefore cannot be discharged from defective storage or transportation tanks, and danger to the environment is virtually excluded.